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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27111559">Come Home</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocksalts/pseuds/rocksalts'>rocksalts</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Suptober20 [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Dreamhunter, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Reunited and It Feels So Good</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:54:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>832</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27111559</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/rocksalts/pseuds/rocksalts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Claire comes back home from her lead on Dark!Kaia, only to find the house eerily quiet.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kaia Nieves/Claire Novak</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Suptober20 [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977244</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Come Home</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>suptober20 day 13 prompt: ladies (ficlet) | dreamhunter | ~ 800 words</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Claire angrily wiped away a stray tear from her cheek, blinking to keep her eyesight clear. Though, she supposed that at this point, crashing the car wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to her.</p>
<p>The lead was a dead end. It was always a dead end, always a raging disappointment that struck Claire where it hurt her most.</p>
<p>She pulled off the road.</p>
<p>When she had the car in park, it only took one deep breath and a look at her surroundings—night, dark, <i>empty</i>—before Claire buried her head in her hands with a sob.</p>
<p>Distantly, she thought that the sounds of her cries were pathetic. It was pathetic that Claire had spent so long—months, it had been <i>months</i> since she found out about Kaia’s killer—searching and coming up with nothing.</p>
<p>Claire was a hunter. She’d fought nearly every monster in the book by now: vamps, werewolves, ghosts, djinn. You name it, Claire could kill it.</p>
<p>So why couldn’t she do <i>this</i>?</p>
<p>“Ah, I’m such an idiot,” she mumbled. Cars passed by her with such speed that the empty cup in her cupholder rattled.</p>
<p>Claire sat straight again, shaky breaths making her frame tremble. She sat like that for a few minutes, pressing her palms into her thighs and trying to force her stubborn lips into a straight line.</p>
<p>Eventually the tears stopped, and Claire reached to turn on the ignition.</p>
<p>
  <i>Bzz bzz. Bzz bzz.</i>
</p>
<p>She redirected the reach of her hand to pick up her phone.</p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p>“Claire, it’s Jody.”</p>
<p>Despite her sour mood, Claire managed an eye roll and hoped Jody couldn’t hear the thickness of her voice post-cry.</p>
<p>“Caller ID said as much. What’s up?”</p>
<p>There was a long pause, and Claire felt concern begin to stir in her stomach.</p>
<p>“Jody? Something wrong?”</p>
<p>“No! No,” Jody soothed. “Are you on your way home?”</p>
<p>Claire continued frowning, suspicion still nigh. “Yeah, I’m about an hour out. Sorry, I—” She rubbed her forehead, “I should have called.”</p>
<p>“Don’t worry about it. Just get home safe.”</p>
<p>“I will.”</p>
<p>They said their goodbyes and Claire hung up, her concern falling away with her phone, which tumbled onto the seat beside her. She started the drive home.</p>
<p>—</p>
<p>Claire took one more deep, sobering breath and pushed open the door.</p>
<p>She’d expected a warm welcome—Claire had been gone for <i>weeks</i> chasing after…after— but was greeted with silence. Her footsteps creaked against the old floorboards on her way to the couch, where Claire dropped her duffle as quietly as she could.</p>
<p>There was something going on. She took out her gun and began searching the house, one room at a time.</p>
<p>Eventually, she came up empty. The last room that was left was her own.</p>
<p>The door was open a crack, and Claire pushed it further with her foot, gun ready and pointed.</p>
<p>She aimed it at the figure sitting in her bed. The door whined. The person turned.</p>
<p>Claire froze, stared at the smile, that sickeningly sweet smile that was <i>deceitful</i> and <i>wrong</i> and <i>vile</i> and Claire flinched as she pulled the trigger.</p>
<p>The girl flinched, too, expecting a bullet that never came. Out of rounds. Claire pulled out her knife, anger boiling now, and started towards her.</p>
<p>“Claire, <i>wait</i>,” she tried, moving backwards on the bed and nearly falling off of it. “It’s not—it isn’t what you think—”</p>
<p>Claire paused, scowling deeply. “Oh, I think it is.”</p>
<p>She jumped her, and the monster--because that’s what she was, just another thing to hunt-- feebly attempted to push back. Claire pressed the knife to her neck, a moment away from swiping the blade across it.</p>
<p>“Woah! Woah, Claire, don’t!”</p>
<p>Jody’s voice stilled her hand. Claire searched the teary brown eyes that were deceptively Kaia’s, looked for an answer to her burning question: <i>why?</i></p>
<p>“Because that’s her, Claire. That’s Kaia. The—the <i>real</i> Kaia. <i>Your</i> Kaia.”</p>
<p>Claire let up on the knife, and on the place where she held down Dark—<i>Kaia‘s</i> shoulder.</p>
<p>“Hi, Claire.”</p>
<p>And it was her voice. Kaia’s voice. Claire felt her eyes sting, unbelieving.</p>
<p>Then Kaia touched a finger to Claire’s forehead, where she had a scar from the doorknob oh so many years ago, the story she had told Kaia. <i>Her</i> Kaia.</p>
<p>Claire tossed the knife aside and pulled Kaia into a hug, tears running into Kaia’s hair and wetting her neck.</p>
<p>And it was all over her, Kaia’s scent, Kaia’s arms around her back, <i>Kaia, Kaia, Kaia</i>.</p>
<p>After a minute that felt both like years and like milliseconds, there was a dip in the bed beside them, and Claire drew away.</p>
<p>Jody was smiling warmly at them, eyes filled with tears of her own.</p>
<p>“It’s good to see you ladies back together. My girls... Claire, I didn’t know how to tell you—”</p>
<p>Claire shook her head and smiled, gaze falling back on Kaia.</p>
<p>“That you got her back? It doesn’t matter how. Not right now. What matter’s is you’re <i>here</i>, Kaia. You’re home.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>follow my tumblr if you enjoyed, @rambleoncas<br/>I post my suptober20 prompts on there first !!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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